DetroitDetroit (/dɪˈtrɔɪt/)[6] is the most populous city in the U.S.
state of Michigan, the largest city on the United States–Canada
border, and the seat of Wayne County. The municipality of
DetroitDetroit had
a 2016 estimated population of 672,795, making it the 23rd-most
populous city in the United States. The metropolitan area, known as
Metro Detroit, is home to 4.3 million people, making it the
second-largest in the
MidwestMidwest after Chicago.
DetroitDetroit is a major port on the
DetroitDetroit River, one of the four major
straits that connect the
Great LakesGreat Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence
Seaway. The
Detroit Metropolitan AirportDetroit Metropolitan Airport is among the most important
hubs in the United States. The
CityCity of
DetroitDetroit anchors the
third-largest economic region in the Midwest, behind
ChicagoChicago and
Minneapolis-St. Paul, and the 14th-largest in the United States.[7]
DetroitDetroit and its neighboring Canadian city Windsor are connected
through a tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest international
crossing in North America.[8]
DetroitDetroit is best known as the center of
the U.S. automobile industry, and the "Big Three" auto manufacturers
General Motors, Ford, and
ChryslerChrysler are all headquartered in Metro
Detroit.
DetroitDetroit was founded on July 24, 1701 by the French explorer and
adventurer
Antoine de la Mothe CadillacAntoine de la Mothe Cadillac and a party of settlers.
During the 19th century, it became an important industrial hub at the
center of the
Great LakesGreat Lakes region. With expansion of the auto industry
in the early 20th century, the city and its suburbs experienced rapid
growth, and by the 1940s, the city had become the fourth-largest in
the country. However, due to industrial restructuring, the loss of
jobs in the auto industry, and rapid suburbanization,
DetroitDetroit lost
considerable population from the late 20th century to the present.
Since reaching a peak of 1.85 million at the 1950 census, Detroit's
population has declined by more than 60 percent.[3] In 2013, Detroit
became the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, which it
successfully exited in December 2014, when the city government
regained control of Detroit's finances.[9]
Detroit's diverse culture has had both local and international
influence, particularly in music, with the city giving rise to the
genres of
MotownMotown and techno, and playing an important role in the
development of jazz, hip-hop, rock, and punk music. The erstwhile
rapid growth of
DetroitDetroit left a globally unique stock of architectural
monuments and historic places of the first half of the 20th century,
and since the 2000s conservation efforts managed to save many
architectural pieces and allowed several large-scale revitalisations,
including the restoration of several historic theatres and
entertainment venues, highrise renovations, new sports stadiums, and a
riverfront revitalization project. More recently, the population of
Downtown Detroit, Midtown Detroit, and various other neighborhoods has
increased. In 2015,
DetroitDetroit was named a "
CityCity of Design" by UNESCO,
the first U.S. city to receive that designation.[10]

18.1 Municipal government and local Chamber of Commerce
18.2 Historical research and current events

History[edit]
Main articles:
History of DetroitHistory of Detroit and Timeline of Detroit
Early settlement[edit]
Paleo-IndianPaleo-Indian people inhabited areas near
DetroitDetroit as early as 11,000
years ago including the culture referred to as the Mound-builders.[11]
In the 17th century, the region was inhabited by Huron, Odawa,
PotawatomiPotawatomi and
IroquoisIroquois peoples.[12]
The first Europeans did not penetrate into the region and reach the
straits of
DetroitDetroit until French missionaries and traders worked their
way around the League of the Iroquois, with whom they were at war, and
other Iroquoian tribes in the 1630s.[13] The north side of Lake Erie
was held by the Huron and Neutral peoples until the 1650s, when the
IroquoisIroquois pushed both and the
Erie peopleErie people away from the lake and its
beaver-rich feeder streams in the
BeaverBeaver Wars of 1649–1655.[13] By
the 1670s, the war-weakened
IroquoisIroquois laid claim to as far south as the
Ohio RiverOhio River valley in northern
KentuckyKentucky as hunting grounds,[13] and had
absorbed many other Iroquoian peoples after defeating them in war.[13]
For the next hundred years, virtually no British, colonist, or French
action was contemplated without consultation with, or consideration of
the Iroquois' likely response.[13] When the French and Indian War
evicted the
Kingdom of FranceKingdom of France from Canada, it removed one barrier to
British colonists migrating west. (See main article).
British negotiations with the
IroquoisIroquois would both prove critical and
lead to a Crown policy limiting the west of the Alleghenies
settlements below the Great Lakes, which gave many American would-be
migrants a casus belli for supporting the American Revolution. The
1778 raids and resultant 1779 decisive
Sullivan ExpeditionSullivan Expedition reopened
the
Ohio CountryOhio Country to westward emigration, which began almost
immediately, and by 1800 white settlers were pouring westwards.
Later settlement[edit]

Ste. Anne de Détroit, founded in 1701 by French colonists, is the
second-oldest continuously operating Catholic parish in the United
States. The present church was completed in 1887.[14]

The city was named by French colonists, referring to the
DetroitDetroit River
(French: le détroit du lac Érié, meaning the strait of Lake Erie),
linking
Lake HuronLake Huron and Lake Erie; in the historical context, the
strait included the St. Clair River,
Lake St. ClairLake St. Clair and the Detroit
River.[15][16]
On the shores of the strait, in 1701, the French officer Antoine de la
Mothe Cadillac, along with fifty-one French people and French
Canadians, founded a settlement called Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit,
naming it after Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, Minister of
Marine under Louis XIV.[17] France offered free land to colonists to
attract families to Detroit; when it reached a total population of 800
in 1765, it was the largest European settlement between
MontrealMontreal and
New Orleans, both also French settlements.[18] By 1773, the population
of
DetroitDetroit was 1,400. By 1778, its population was up to 2,144 and it
was the third-largest city in the Province of Quebec.[19]
The region's economy was based on the lucrative fur trade, in which
numerous Native American people had important roles. The flag of
DetroitDetroit reflects its French colonial heritage. Descendants of the
earliest French and
French CanadianFrench Canadian settlers formed a cohesive
community, who gradually were replaced as the dominant population
after more
Anglo-AmericanAnglo-American settlers came to the area in the early 19th
century. Living along the shores of Lakes St. Clair, and south to
Monroe and downriver suburbs, the
French CanadiansFrench Canadians of Detroit, also
known as Muskrat French, remain a subculture in the region
today.[20][21]
During the
French and Indian WarFrench and Indian War (1754–63), the North American front
of the
Seven Years' WarSeven Years' War between Britain and France, British troops
gained control of the settlement in 1760. They shortened the name to
Detroit. Several Native American tribes launched Pontiac's Rebellion
(1763), and conducted a siege of Fort Detroit, but failed to capture
it. In defeat, France ceded its territory in North America east of the
MississippiMississippi to Britain following the war.
Following the
American Revolutionary WarAmerican Revolutionary War and United States
independence, Britain ceded
DetroitDetroit along with other territory in the
area under the
Jay TreatyJay Treaty (1796), which established the northern
border with Canada.[22] In 1805, fire destroyed most of the Detroit
settlement, which consisted mostly of wooden buildings. A river
warehouse and brick chimneys of the former wooden homes were the sole
structures to survive.[23]
19th century[edit]

From 1805 to 1847,
DetroitDetroit was the capital of
MichiganMichigan (first the
territory, then the state).
DetroitDetroit surrendered without a fight to
British troops during the
War of 1812War of 1812 in the Siege of Detroit. The
Battle of FrenchtownBattle of Frenchtown (January 18–23, 1813) was part of a United
States effort to retake the city, and American troops suffered their
highest fatalities of any battle in the war. This battle is
commemorated at
River Raisin National Battlefield ParkRiver Raisin National Battlefield Park south of
DetroitDetroit in Monroe County.
DetroitDetroit was finally recaptured by the United
States later that year.
It was incorporated as a city in 1815.[14] As the city expanded, a
geometric street plan developed by
Augustus B. WoodwardAugustus B. Woodward was followed,
featuring grand boulevards as in Paris.
Prior to the American Civil War, the city's access to the Canada–US
border made it a key stop for refugee slaves gaining freedom in the
North along the Underground Railroad. Many went across the Detroit
River to Canada to escape pursuit by slave catchers.[24][14] There
were estimated to be 20,000 to 30,000 African-American refugees who
settled in Canada.[25]
George DeBaptisteGeorge DeBaptiste was considered to be the
"president" of the
DetroitDetroit Underground Railroad, William Lambert the
"vice president" or "secretary" and
Laura HavilandLaura Haviland the
"superintendent".[26]
Numerous men from
DetroitDetroit volunteered to fight for the Union during
the American Civil War, including the 24th
MichiganMichigan Infantry Regiment
(part of the legendary Iron Brigade), which fought with distinction
and suffered 82% casualties at the
Battle of GettysburgBattle of Gettysburg in 1863. When
the First Volunteer Infantry Regiment arrived to fortify Washington,
DC, President
Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln is quoted as saying "Thank God for
Michigan!"
George Armstrong CusterGeorge Armstrong Custer led the
MichiganMichigan Brigade during the
Civil War and called them the "Wolverines".[27]
During the late 19th century, several
Gilded AgeGilded Age mansions reflecting
the wealth of industry and shipping magnates were built east and west
of the current downtown, along the major avenues of the Woodward plan.
Most notable among them was the
David Whitney HouseDavid Whitney House located at 4421
Woodward Avenue, which became a prime location for mansions. During
this period some referred to
DetroitDetroit as the Paris of the West for its
architecture, grand avenues in the Paris style, and for Washington
Boulevard, recently electrified by Thomas Edison.[14] The city had
grown steadily from the 1830s with the rise of shipping, shipbuilding,
and manufacturing industries. Strategically located along the Great
Lakes waterway,
DetroitDetroit emerged as a major port and transportation
hub.
In 1896, a thriving carriage trade prompted
Henry FordHenry Ford to build his
first automobile in a rented workshop on Mack Avenue. During this
growth period,
DetroitDetroit expanded its borders by annexing all or part of
several surrounding villages and townships.
20th century[edit]

In 1903,
Henry FordHenry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company. Ford's
manufacturing—and those of automotive pioneers William C. Durant,
the Dodge Brothers, Packard, and Walter Chrysler—established
Detroit's status in the early 20th century as the world's automotive
capital.[14] The growth of the auto industry was reflected by changes
in businesses throughout the
MidwestMidwest and nation, with the development
of garages to service vehicles and gas stations, as well as factories
for parts and tires.
With the rapid growth of industrial workers in the auto factories,
labor unions such as the
American Federation of LaborAmerican Federation of Labor and the United
Auto Workers fought to organize workers to gain them better working
conditions and wages. They initiated strikes and other tactics in
support of improvements such as the 8-hour day/40-hour work week,
increased wages, greater benefits and improved working conditions. The
labor activism during those years increased influence of union leaders
in the city such as
Jimmy HoffaJimmy Hoffa of the
TeamstersTeamsters and
Walter ReutherWalter Reuther of
the Autoworkers.
The city became the 4th-largest in the nation in 1920, after only New
York City,
ChicagoChicago and Philadelphia, with the influence of the booming
auto industry.
The prohibition of alcohol from 1920 to 1933 resulted in the Detroit
River becoming a major conduit for smuggling of illegal Canadian
spirits.[28]
Detroit, like many places in the United States, developed racial
conflict and discrimination in the 20th century following rapid
demographic changes as hundreds of thousands of new workers were
attracted to the industrial city; in a short period it became the
4th-largest city in the nation. The Great Migration brought rural
blacks from the South; they were outnumbered by southern whites who
also migrated to the city. Immigration brought southern and eastern
Europeans of Catholic and Jewish faith; these new groups competed with
native-born whites for jobs and housing in the booming city. Detroit
was one of the major
MidwestMidwest cities that was a site for the dramatic
urban revival of the
Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan beginning in 1915. "By the 1920s the
city had become a stronghold of the KKK," whose members opposed
Catholic and Jewish immigrants, as well as black Americans.[29] The
Black Legion, a secret vigilante group, was active in the
DetroitDetroit area
in the 1930s, when one-third of its estimated 20,000 to 30,000 members
in
MichiganMichigan were based in the city. It was defeated after numerous
prosecutions following the kidnapping and murder in 1936 of Charles
Poole, a Catholic
Works Progress AdministrationWorks Progress Administration organizer. A total of
49 men of the Black Legion were convicted of numerous crimes, with
many sentenced to life in prison for murder.

Looking south down Woodward Avenue, with the
DetroitDetroit skyline in the
distance, July 1942

In the 1940s the world's "first urban depressed freeway" ever built,
the Davison,[30] was constructed in Detroit. During World War II, the
government encouraged retooling of the American automobile industry in
support of the Allied powers, leading to Detroit's key role in the
American Arsenal of Democracy.[31]
Jobs expanded so rapidly that 400,000 people were attracted to the
city from 1941 to 1943, including 50,000 blacks in the second wave of
the Great Migration, and 350,000 whites, many of them from the South.
Some European immigrants and their descendants feared black
competition for jobs and housing. The federal government prohibited
discrimination in defense work but when in June 1943,
PackardPackard promoted
three blacks to work next to whites on its assembly lines, 25,000
whites walked off the job.[32] The
DetroitDetroit race riot of 1943 took
place three weeks after the
PackardPackard plant protest. Over the course of
three days, 34 people were killed, of whom 25 were African American,
and approximately 600 were injured, 75% black people.[29][33]
Postwar era[edit]
Industrial mergers in the 1950s, especially in the automobile sector,
increased oligopoly in the American auto industry. Detroit
manufacturers such as
PackardPackard and Hudson merged into other companies
and eventually disappeared. At its peak population of 1,849,568, in
the 1950 Census, the city was the 5th-largest in the United States,
after New York City, Chicago,
PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia and Los Angeles.
As in other major American cities in the postwar era, construction of
an extensive highway and freeway system around
DetroitDetroit and pent-up
demand for new housing stimulated suburbanization; highways made
commuting by car easier. In 1956, Detroit's last heavily used electric
streetcar line along the length of
Woodward AvenueWoodward Avenue was removed and
replaced with gas-powered buses. It was the last line of what had once
been a 534-mile network of electric streetcars. In 1941 at peak times,
a streetcar ran on
Woodward AvenueWoodward Avenue every 60 seconds.[34][35]
All of these changes in the area's transportation system favored
low-density, auto-oriented development rather than high-density urban
development, and industry also moved to the suburbs. The metro Detroit
area developed as one of the most sprawling job markets in the United
States by the 21st century, and combined with poor public transport,
resulted in many jobs beyond the reach of urban low-income
workers.[36]

PackardPackard Automotive Plant, an automobile factory that was closed and
abandoned in 1958.

In 1950, the city held about one-third of the state's population,
anchored by its industries and workers. Over the next sixty years, the
city's population declined to less than 10 percent of the state's
population. During the same time period, the sprawling Detroit
metropolitan area, which surrounds and includes the city, grew to
contain more than half of Michigan's population.[14] The shift of
population and jobs eroded Detroit's tax base.
In June 1963, Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King Jr. gave a major speech in
DetroitDetroit that foreshadowed his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington,
DC, two months later. While the civil rights movement gained
significant federal civil rights laws in 1964 and 1965, longstanding
inequities resulted in confrontations between the police and inner
city black youth wanting change. Longstanding tensions in Detroit
culminated in the Twelfth Street riot in July 1967. Governor George W.
Romney ordered the
MichiganMichigan National Guard into Detroit, and President
Johnson sent in U.S. Army troops. The result was 43 dead, 467 injured,
over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed, mostly in
black residential and business areas. Thousands of small businesses
closed permanently or relocated to safer neighborhoods. The affected
district lay in ruins for decades.[37] It was the most costly riot in
the United States.
On August 18, 1970, the
NAACPNAACP filed suit against
MichiganMichigan state
officials, including Governor William Milliken, charging de facto
public school segregation. The
NAACPNAACP argued that although schools were
not legally segregated, the city of
DetroitDetroit and its surrounding
counties had enacted policies to maintain racial segregation in public
schools. The
NAACPNAACP also suggested a direct relationship between unfair
housing practices and educational segregation, which followed
segregated neighborhoods.[38] The District Court held all levels of
government accountable for the segregation in its ruling. The Sixth
Circuit Court affirmed some of the decision, holding that it was the
state's responsibility to integrate across the segregated metropolitan
area.[39] The U.S. Supreme Court took up the case February 27,
1974.[38] The subsequent
Milliken v. BradleyMilliken v. Bradley decision had wide
national influence. In a narrow decision, the Court found that schools
were a subject of local control and that suburbs could not be forced
to solve problems in the city's school district.
"Milliken was perhaps the greatest missed opportunity of that period,"
said Myron Orfield, professor of law at the University of Minnesota.
"Had that gone the other way, it would have opened the door to fixing
nearly all of Detroit's current problems."[40] John Mogk, a professor
of law and an expert in urban planning at
Wayne State UniversityWayne State University in
Detroit, says, "Everybody thinks that it was the riots [in 1967] that
caused the white families to leave. Some people were leaving at that
time but, really, it was after Milliken that you saw mass flight to
the suburbs. If the case had gone the other way, it is likely that
DetroitDetroit would not have experienced the steep decline in its tax base
that has occurred since then."[40]
1970s and decline[edit]

Main articles:
Decline of DetroitDecline of Detroit and
DetroitDetroit bankruptcy
In November 1973, the city elected
Coleman YoungColeman Young as its first black
mayor. After taking office, Young emphasized increasing racial
diversity in the police department.[41] Young also worked to improve
Detroit's transportation system, but tension between Young and his
suburban counterparts over regional matters was problematic throughout
his mayoral term. In 1976, the federal government offered $600 million
for building a regional rapid transit system, under a single regional
authority.[42] But the inability of
DetroitDetroit and its suburban neighbors
to solve conflicts over transit planning resulted in the region losing
the majority of funding for rapid transit. Following the failure to
reach an agreement over the larger system, the
CityCity moved forward with
construction of the elevated downtown circulator portion of the
system, which became known as the
DetroitDetroit People Mover.[43]

The gasoline crises of 1973 and 1979 also affected
DetroitDetroit and the
U.S. auto industry. Buyers chose smaller, more fuel-efficient cars
made by foreign makers as the price of gas rose. Efforts to revive the
city were stymied by the struggles of the auto industry, as their
sales and market share declined. Automakers laid off thousands of
employees and closed plants in the city, further eroding the tax base.
To counteract this, the city used eminent domain to build two large
new auto assembly plants in the city.[44]
As mayor, Young sought to revive the city by seeking to increase
investment in the city's declining downtown. The Renaissance Center, a
mixed-use office and retail complex, opened in 1977. This group of
skyscrapers was an attempt to keep businesses in downtown.[14][45][46]
Young also gave city support to other large developments to attract
middle and upper-class residents back to the city. Despite the
Renaissance CenterRenaissance Center and other projects, the downtown area continued to
lose businesses to the automobile dependent suburbs. Major stores and
hotels closed and many large office buildings went vacant. Young was
criticized for being too focused on downtown development and not doing
enough to lower the city's high crime rate and improve city services.
Long a major population center and site of worldwide automobile
manufacturing,
DetroitDetroit has suffered a long economic decline produced
by numerous factors.[47][48][49] Like many industrial American cities,
DetroitDetroit reached its population peak in the 1950 census. The peak
population was 1.8 million people. Following suburbanization,
industrial restructuring, and loss of jobs (as described above), by
the 2010 census, the city had less than 40 percent of that number,
with just over 700,000 residents. The city has declined in population
in each census since 1950.[50][51]
High unemployment was compounded by middle-class flight to the
suburbs, and some residents leaving the state to find work. The city
was left with a higher proportion of poor in its population, reduced
tax base, depressed property values, abandoned buildings, abandoned
neighborhoods, high crime rates and a pronounced demographic
imbalance.
1990s–2000s[edit]

The Renaissance Center, home of the world headquarters of General
Motors and the second tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere, sits
along the International Riverfront.

In 1993 Young retired as Detroit's longest serving mayor, deciding not
to seek a sixth term. That year the city elected Dennis Archer, a
former
MichiganMichigan Supreme Court justice. Archer prioritized downtown
development and easing tensions with Detroit's suburban neighbors. A
referendum to allow casino gambling in the city passed in 1996;
several temporary casino facilities opened in 1999, and permanent
downtown casinos with hotels opened in 2007–08.[52]
Campus Martius, a reconfiguration of downtown's main intersection as a
new park was opened in 2004. The park has been cited as one of the
best public spaces in the United States.[53][54][55] The city's
riverfront has been the focus of redevelopment, following successful
examples of other older industrial cities. In 2001, the first portion
of the International Riverfront was completed as a part of the city's
300th anniversary celebration, with miles of parks and associated
landscaping completed in succeeding years. In 2011, the Port Authority
Passenger Terminal opened with the riverwalk connecting
Hart PlazaHart Plaza to
the Renaissance Center.[46]
Since 2006, $9 billion has been invested in downtown and surrounding
neighborhoods; $5.2 billion of that has come in 2013 and 2014.[56]
Construction activity, particularly rehabilitation of historic
downtown buildings, has increased markedly. The number of vacant
downtown buildings has dropped from nearly 50 to around 13.[when?][57]
Among the most notable redevelopment projects are the Book Cadillac
Hotel and the Fort Shelby Hotel; the David Broderick Tower; and the
David Whitney Building.[45]
Little CaesarsLittle Caesars Arena, a new home for the
Detroit Red WingsDetroit Red Wings and the
Detroit PistonsDetroit Pistons with attached residential, hotel, and retail use
opened on September 5, 2017.[58] The plans for the project call for
mixed-use residential on the blocks surrounding the arena and the
renovation of the vacant 14-story Eddystone Hotel. It will be a part
of The District in Detroit, a group of places owned by Olympia
Entertainment Inc., including
Comerica ParkComerica Park and the
DetroitDetroit Opera
House, among others.
21st century[edit]
Detroit's protracted decline has resulted in severe urban decay and
thousands of empty buildings around the city. Some parts of Detroit
are so sparsely populated that the city has difficulty providing
municipal services. The city has considered various solutions, such as
demolishing abandoned homes and buildings; removing street lighting
from large portions of the city; and encouraging the small population
in certain areas to move to more populated
locations.[59][60][61][62][63] Roughly half of the owners of Detroit's
305,000 properties failed to pay their 2011 tax bills, resulting in
about $246 million in taxes and fees going uncollected, nearly half of
which was due to Detroit; the rest of the money would have been
earmarked for Wayne County,
DetroitDetroit Public Schools, and the library
system.[64]

In September 2008, Mayor
Kwame KilpatrickKwame Kilpatrick (who had served for six
years) resigned following felony convictions. In 2013, Kilpatrick was
convicted on 24 federal felony counts, including mail fraud, wire
fraud, and racketeering,[65] and was sentenced to 28 years in federal
prison.[66] The former mayor's activities cost the city an estimated
$20 million.[67] In 2013, felony bribery charges were brought against
seven building inspectors.[68] In 2016, further corruption charges
were brought against 12 principals, a former school superintendent and
supply vendor[69] for a $12 million kickback scheme.[70][71] Law
professor Peter Henning argues that Detroit's corruption is not
unusual for a city its size, especially when compared with
Chicago.[72]
The city's financial crisis resulted in the state of
MichiganMichigan taking
over administrative control of its government.[73] The state governor
declared a financial emergency in March 2013, appointing
Kevyn Orr as
emergency manager. On July 18, 2013,
DetroitDetroit became the largest U.S.
city to file for bankruptcy.[74] It was declared bankrupt by U.S.
District Court on December 3, 2013, in light of the city's $18.5
billion debt and its inability to fully repay its thousands of
creditors.[75] On November 7, 2014 the city's plan for exiting
bankruptcy was approved. The following month on December 11 the city
officially exited bankruptcy. The plan allowed the city to eliminate
$7 billion in debt and invest $1.7 billion into improved city
services.[76]
One of the largest post-bankruptcy efforts to improve city services
has been work to fix the city's broken street lighting system. At one
time it was estimated that 40% of lights were not working. The plan
calls for replacing outdated high pressure sodium lights with 65,000
LED lights. Construction began in late 2014 and finished in December
2016 making
DetroitDetroit the largest U.S city with all LED street
lighting.[77]
In the 2010s, several initiatives were taken by Detroit's citizens and
new inhabitants to improve the cityscape by renovating and
revitalizing neighborhoods. Such include the Motor
CityCity Blight
Busters[78] and various urban gardening movements.[79] The well-known
symbol of the city's decades-long demise, the
MichiganMichigan Central
Station, is renovated with new windows, elevators and facilities since
2015.[80] Several other landmark buildings were fully renovated and
transformed into condominiums, hotels, offices or for cultural uses.
DetroitDetroit is mentioned as a city of renaissance.[81]
See also: Planning and development in Detroit
Geography[edit]

Metropolitan area[edit]
DetroitDetroit is the center of a three-county urban area (population
3,734,090, area of 1,337 square miles (3,460 km2), a 2010 United
States Census) six-county metropolitan statistical area (2010 Census
population of 4,296,250, area of 3,913 square miles
[10,130 km2]), and a nine-county
Combined Statistical AreaCombined Statistical Area (2010
Census population of 5,218,852, area of 5,814 square miles
[15,060 km2]).[4][82][83]
Topography[edit]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of
142.87 square miles (370.03 km2), of which 138.75 square miles
(359.36 km2) is land and 4.12 square miles (10.67 km2) is
water.[2]
DetroitDetroit is the principal city in
Metro DetroitMetro Detroit and Southeast
MichiganMichigan situated in the
Midwestern United StatesMidwestern United States and the Great Lakes
region.
The
Detroit RiverDetroit River International Wildlife Refuge is the only
international wildlife preserve in North America, uniquely located in
the heart of a major metropolitan area. The Refuge includes islands,
coastal wetlands, marshes, shoals, and waterfront lands along 48 miles
(77 km) of the
Detroit RiverDetroit River and Western
Lake ErieLake Erie shoreline.
The city slopes gently from the northwest to southeast on a till plain
composed largely of glacial and lake clay. The most notable
topographical feature in the city is the
DetroitDetroit Moraine, a broad clay
ridge on which the older portions of
DetroitDetroit and Windsor sit, rising
approximately 62 feet (19 m) above the river at its highest
point.[84] The highest elevation in the city is located directly north
of Gorham Playground on the northwest side approximately three blocks
south of 8 Mile Road, at a height of 675 to 680 feet (206 to
207 m).[85] Detroit's lowest elevation is along the Detroit
River, at a surface height of 572 feet (174 m).[86]

Belle Isle ParkBelle Isle Park is a 982-acre (1.534 sq mi; 397 ha)
island park in the
DetroitDetroit River, between
DetroitDetroit and Windsor,
Ontario. It is connected to the mainland by the MacArthur Bridge in
Detroit.
Belle Isle ParkBelle Isle Park contains such attractions as the James Scott
Memorial Fountain, the Belle Isle Conservatory, the
DetroitDetroit Yacht Club
on an adjacent island, a half-mile (800 m) beach, a golf course, a
nature center, monuments, and gardens. The city skyline may be viewed
from the island.
Three road systems cross the city: the original French template, with
avenues radiating from the waterfront; and true north–south roads
based on the
Northwest OrdinanceNorthwest Ordinance township system. The city is north of
Windsor, Ontario.
DetroitDetroit is the only major city along the Canada–US
border in which one travels south in order to cross into Canada.
DetroitDetroit has four border crossings: the
Ambassador BridgeAmbassador Bridge and the
Detroit–Windsor TunnelDetroit–Windsor Tunnel provide motor vehicle thoroughfares, with the
MichiganMichigan Central Railway Tunnel providing railroad access to and from
Canada. The fourth border crossing is the Detroit–Windsor Truck
Ferry, located near the Windsor Salt Mine and Zug Island. Near Zug
Island, the southwest part of the city was developed over a 1,500-acre
(610 ha) salt mine that is 1,100 feet (340 m) below the
surface. The
Detroit salt mine run by the
DetroitDetroit Salt Company has
over 100 miles (160 km) of roads within.[87][88]
Climate[edit]

DetroitDetroit and the rest of southeastern
MichiganMichigan have a humid continental
climate (Köppen Dfa) which is influenced by the Great Lakes; the city
and close-in suburbs are part of USDA
Hardiness zoneHardiness zone 6b, with
farther-out northern and western suburbs generally falling in zone
6a.[89] Winters are cold, with moderate snowfall and temperatures not
rising above freezing on an average 44 days annually, while
dropping to or below 0 °F (−18 °C) on an average
4.4 days a year; summers are warm to hot with temperatures
exceeding 90 °F (32 °C) on 12 days.[90] The warm
season runs from May to September. The monthly daily mean temperature
ranges from 25.6 °F (−3.6 °C) in January to
73.6 °F (23.1 °C) in July. Official temperature extremes
range from 105 °F (41 °C) on July 24, 1934 down to
−21 °F (−29 °C) on January 21, 1984; the record low
maximum is −4 °F (−20 °C) on January 19, 1994, while,
conversely the record high minimum is 80 °F (27 °C) on
August 1, 2006, the most recent of five occurrences.[90] A decade or
two may pass between readings of 100 °F (38 °C) or higher,
which last occurred July 17, 2012. The average window for freezing
temperatures is October 20 thru April 22, allowing a growing season of
180 days.[90]
PrecipitationPrecipitation is moderate and somewhat evenly distributed throughout
the year, although the warmer months such as May and June average
more, averaging 33.5 inches (850 mm) annually, but historically
ranging from 20.49 in (520 mm) in 1963 to 47.70 in
(1,212 mm) in 2011.[90] Snowfall, which typically falls in
measurable amounts between November 15 through April 4 (occasionally
in October and very rarely in May),[90] averages 42.5 inches
(108 cm) per season, although historically ranging from
11.5 in (29 cm) in 1881–82 to 94.9 in (241 cm)
in 2013–14.[90] A thick snowpack is not often seen, with an average
of only 27.5 days with 3 in (7.6 cm) or more of snow
cover.[90] Thunderstorms are frequent in the
DetroitDetroit area. These
usually occur during spring and summer.[91]

Seen in panorama, Detroit's waterfront shows a variety of
architectural styles. The post modern Neo-Gothic spires of the One
DetroitDetroit Center (1993) were designed to blend with the city's Art Deco
skyscrapers. Together with the Renaissance Center, they form a
distinctive and recognizable skyline. Examples of the
Art DecoArt Deco style
include the
Guardian BuildingGuardian Building and
Penobscot BuildingPenobscot Building downtown, as well
as the
Fisher BuildingFisher Building and
Cadillac PlaceCadillac Place in the
New CenterNew Center area near
Wayne State University. Among the city's prominent structures are
United States' largest Fox Theatre, the
DetroitDetroit Opera House, and the
DetroitDetroit Institute of Arts.[94][95]
While the Downtown and
New CenterNew Center areas contain high-rise buildings,
the majority of the surrounding city consists of low-rise structures
and single-family homes. Outside of the city's core, residential
high-rises are found in upper-class neighborhoods such as the East
Riverfront extending toward
Grosse PointeGrosse Pointe and the Palmer Park
neighborhood just west of Woodward. The University Commons-Palmer Park
district in northwest Detroit, near the University of
DetroitDetroit Mercy
and Marygrove College, anchors historic neighborhoods including Palmer
Woods, Sherwood Forest, and the University District.
The
National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places lists several area
neighborhoods and districts.
NeighborhoodsNeighborhoods constructed prior to World
War II feature the architecture of the times, with wood-frame and
brick houses in the working-class neighborhoods, larger brick homes in
middle-class neighborhoods, and ornate mansions in upper-class
neighborhoods such as Brush Park, Woodbridge, Indian Village, Palmer
Woods, Boston-Edison, and others.

St. Joseph Catholic Church (1873) is a notable example of Detroit's
ecclesiastical architecture (interior)

Some of the oldest neighborhoods are along the Woodward and East
Jefferson corridors. Some newer residential construction may also be
found along the Woodward corridor, the far west, and northeast. Some
of the oldest extant neighborhoods include West Canfield and Brush
Park, which have both seen multimillion-dollar restorations and
construction of new homes and condominiums.[45][96]

Many of the city's architecturally significant buildings have been
listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the city has one
of United States' largest surviving collections of late 19th- and
early 20th-century buildings.[95] Architecturally significant churches
and cathedrals in the city include St. Joseph's, Old St. Mary's, the
Sweetest Heart of Mary, and the Cathedral of the Most Blessed
Sacrament.[94]
The city has substantial activity in urban design, historic
preservation, and architecture.[97] A number of downtown redevelopment
projects—of which
Campus Martius ParkCampus Martius Park is one of the most
notable—have revitalized parts of the city. Grand Circus Park stands
near the city's theater district, Ford Field, home of the Detroit
Lions, and
ComericaComerica Park, home of the
DetroitDetroit Tigers.[94] Other
projects include the demolition of the
Ford AuditoriumFord Auditorium off of
Jefferson St.
The
Detroit International RiverfrontDetroit International Riverfront includes a partially completed
three-and-one-half mile riverfront promenade with a combination of
parks, residential buildings, and commercial areas. It extends from
Hart PlazaHart Plaza to the MacArthur Bridge accessing
Belle Isle ParkBelle Isle Park (the
largest island park in a U.S. city). The riverfront includes
Tri-Centennial State ParkTri-Centennial State Park and Harbor, Michigan's first urban state
park. The second phase is a two-mile (3.2-kilometre) extension from
Hart PlazaHart Plaza to the
Ambassador BridgeAmbassador Bridge for a total of five miles (8.0
kilometres) of parkway from bridge to bridge. Civic planners envision
that the pedestrian parks will stimulate residential redevelopment of
riverfront properties condemned under eminent domain.
Other major parks include River Rouge (in the southwest side), the
largest park in Detroit; Palmer (north of Highland Park) and Chene
Park (on the east river downtown).[98]
Neighborhoods[edit]
Further information:
NeighborhoodsNeighborhoods in Detroit

Restored historic homes in the East Ferry Avenue neighborhood in
Midtown

DetroitDetroit has a variety of neighborhood types. The revitalized Downtown,
Midtown, and
New CenterNew Center areas feature many historic buildings and are
high density, while further out, particularly in the northeast and on
the fringes,[99] high vacancy levels are problematic, for which a
number of solutions have been proposed. In 2007,
Downtown DetroitDowntown Detroit was
recognized as a best city neighborhood in which to retire among the
United States' largest metro areas by CNN Money Magazine editors.[100]
Lafayette Park is a revitalized neighborhood on the city's east side,
part of the
Ludwig Mies van der RoheLudwig Mies van der Rohe residential district.[101] The
78-acre (32 ha) development was originally called the Gratiot
Park. Planned by Mies van der Rohe,
Ludwig Hilberseimer and Alfred
Caldwell it includes a landscaped, 19-acre (7.7 ha) park with no
through traffic, in which these and other low-rise apartment buildings
are situated.[101] Immigrants have contributed to the city's
neighborhood revitalization, especially in southwest Detroit.[102]
Southwest Detroit has experienced a thriving economy in recent years,
as evidenced by new housing, increased business openings and the
recently opened Mexicantown International Welcome Center.[103]

Historic restoration of the Lucien Moore House (1885), in Brush Park,
completed in 2006[104]

The city has numerous neighborhoods consisting of vacant properties
resulting in low inhabited density in those areas, stretching city
services and infrastructure. These neighborhoods are concentrated in
the northeast and on the city's fringes.[99] A 2009 parcel survey
found about a quarter of residential lots in the city to be
undeveloped or vacant, and about 10% of the city's housing to be
unoccupied.[99][105][106] The survey also reported that most (86%) of
the city's homes are in good condition with a minority (9%) in fair
condition needing only minor repairs.[105][106][107][108]
To deal with vacancy issues, the city has begun demolishing the
derelict houses, raising 3,000 of the total 10,000 in 2010,[109] but
the resulting low density creates a strain on the city's
infrastructure. To remedy this, a number of solutions have been
proposed including resident relocation from more sparsely populated
neighborhoods and converting unused space to urban agricultural use,
including Hantz Woodlands, though the city expects to be in the
planning stages for up to another two years.[110][111]
Public funding and private investment have also been made with
promises to rehabilitate neighborhoods. In April 2008, the city
announced a $300-million stimulus plan to create jobs and revitalize
neighborhoods, financed by city bonds and paid for by earmarking about
15% of the wagering tax.[110] The city's working plans for
neighborhood revitalizations include 7-Mile/Livernois, Brightmoor,
East English Village, Grand River/Greenfield, North End, and
Osborn.[110] Private organizations have pledged substantial funding to
the efforts.[112][113] Additionally, the city has cleared a 1,200-acre
(490 ha) section of land for large-scale neighborhood
construction, which the city is calling the Far Eastside Plan.[114] In
2011, Mayor
Dave BingDave Bing announced a plan to categorize neighborhoods by
their needs and prioritize the most needed services for those
neighborhoods.[115]
Demographics[edit]

Historical population

Census
Pop.

%±

1820
1,422

—

1830
2,222

56.3%

1840
9,102

309.6%

1850
21,019

130.9%

1860
45,619

117.0%

1870
79,577

74.4%

1880
116,340

46.2%

1890
205,876

77.0%

1900
285,704

38.8%

1910
465,766

63.0%

1920
993,678

113.3%

1930
1,568,662

57.9%

1940
1,623,452

3.5%

1950
1,849,568

13.9%

1960
1,670,144

−9.7%

1970
1,514,063

−9.3%

1980
1,203,368

−20.5%

1990
1,027,974

−14.6%

2000
951,270

−7.5%

2010
713,777

−25.0%

Est. 2016
672,795
[5]
−5.7%

U.S. Decennial Census[116]

See also:
Demographic history of DetroitDemographic history of Detroit and Demographics of Metro
Detroit
In the 2010
United StatesUnited States Census, the city had 713,777 residents,
ranking it the 18th most populous city in the United States.[3][50]
Of the large shrinking cities of the United States,
DetroitDetroit has had
the most dramatic decline in population of the past 60 years (down
1,135,791) and the second largest percentage decline (down 61.4%,
second only to St. Louis, Missouri's 62.7%). While the drop in
Detroit's population has been ongoing since 1950, the most dramatic
period was the significant 25% decline between the 2000 and 2010
Census.[50]
The population collapse has resulted in large numbers of abandoned
homes and commercial buildings, and areas of the city hit hard by
urban decay.[59][60][61][62][63]
Detroit's 713,777 residents represent 269,445 households, and 162,924
families residing in the city. The population density was 5,144.3
people per square mile (1,895/km²). There were 349,170 housing units
at an average density of 2,516.5 units per square mile (971.6/km²).
Housing density has declined. The city has demolished thousands of
Detroit's abandoned houses, planting some areas and in others allowing
the growth of urban prairie.
Of the 269,445 households, 34.4% had children under the age of 18
living with them, 21.5% were married couples living together, 31.4%
had a female householder with no husband present, 39.5% were
non-families, 34.0% were made up of individuals, and 3.9% had someone
living alone who is 65 years of age or older. Average household size
was 2.59, and average family size was 3.36.
There is a wide distribution of age in the city, with 31.1% under the
age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 29.5% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to
64, and 10.4% 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years.
For every 100 females there were 89.1 males. For every 100 females age
18 and over, there were 83.5 males.
According to a 2014 study, 67% of the population of the city
identified themselves as Christians, with 49% professing attendance
ProtestantProtestant churches, and 16% professing Roman Catholic
beliefs,[117][118] while 24% claim no religious affiliation. Other
religions collectively make up about 8% of the population.
Income and employment[edit]
The loss of industrial and working-class jobs in the city has resulted
in high rates of poverty and associated problems.[119] From 2000 to
2009, the city's estimated median household income fell from $29,526
to $26,098.[120] As of 2010[update] the mean income of
DetroitDetroit is
below the overall U.S. average by several thousand dollars. Of every
three
DetroitDetroit residents, one lives in poverty. Luke Bergmann, author
of Getting Ghost: Two Young Lives and the Struggle for the Soul of an
American City, said in 2010, "
DetroitDetroit is now one of the poorest big
cities in the country."[121]
In the 2010 American Community Survey, median household income in the
city was $25,787, and the median income for a family was $31,011. The
per capita income for the city was $14,118. 32.3% of families had
income at or below the federally defined poverty level. Out of the
total population, 53.6% of those under the age of 18 and 19.8% of
those 65 and older had income at or below the federally defined
poverty line.
Oakland County in Metro Detroit, once rated amongst the wealthiest US
counties per household, is no longer shown in the top 25 listing of
ForbesForbes magazine. But internal county statistical methods—based on
measuring per capita income for counties with more than one million
residents—show that Oakland is still within the top 12, slipping
from the 4th-most affluent such county in the U.S. in 2004 to
11th-most affluent in 2009.[122][123][124]
DetroitDetroit dominates Wayne
County, which has an average household income of about $38,000,
compared to Oakland County's $62,000.[125][126]
Race and ethnicity[edit]

Map of racial distribution in Detroit, 2010 U.S. Census. Each dot is
25 people: White, Black, Asian, Hispanic or Other (yellow)

The city's population increased more than sixfold during the first
half of the 20th century, fed largely by an influx of European, Middle
Eastern (Lebanese, Assyrian/Chaldean), and Southern migrants to work
in the burgeoning automobile industry.[130] In 1940, Whites were 90.4%
of the city's population.[128] Since 1950 the city has seen a major
shift in its population to the suburbs. In 1910, fewer than 6,000
blacks called the city home;[131] in 1930 more than 120,000 blacks
lived in Detroit.[132] The thousands of African Americans who came to
DetroitDetroit were part of the Great Migration of the 20th century.[133]
DetroitDetroit remains one of the most racially segregated cities in the
United States.[134][135] From the 1940s to the 1970s a second wave of
black people moved to
DetroitDetroit to escape
Jim Crow lawsJim Crow laws in the south and
find jobs.[136] However, they soon found themselves excluded from
white areas of the city—through violence, laws, and economic
discrimination (e.g., redlining).[137] White residents attacked black
homes: breaking windows, starting fires, and exploding
bombs.[134][137] The pattern of segregation was later magnified by
white migration to the suburbs.[135] One of the implications of racial
segregation, which correlates with class segregation, may be overall
worse health for some populations.[135][138]
While African-Americans comprised only 13 percent of Michigan's
population in 2010, they made up nearly 82 percent of Detroit's
population. The next largest population groups were Whites, at 10
percent, and Hispanics, at 6 percent.[139] According to the 2010
Census, segregation in
DetroitDetroit has decreased in absolute and in
relative terms. In the first decade of the 21st century, about
two-thirds of the total black population in metropolitan area resided
within the city limits of Detroit.[140][141] The number of integrated
neighborhoods has increased from 100 in 2000 to 204 in 2010. The city
has also moved down the ranking, from number one most segregated to
number four.[142] A 2011 op-ed in
The New York TimesThe New York Times attributed the
decreased segregation rating to the overall exodus from the city,
cautioning that these areas may soon become more segregated. This
pattern already happened in the 1970s, when apparent integration was
actually a precursor to white flight and resegregation.[134] Over a
60-year period, white flight occurred in the city. According to an
estimate of the
MichiganMichigan Metropolitan Information Center, from 2008 to
2009 the percentage of non-Hispanic White residents increased from
8.4% to 13.3%. Some empty nesters and many younger White people moved
into the city while many African Americans moved to the suburbs.[143]
DetroitDetroit has a Mexican-American population. In the early 20th century
thousands of Mexicans came to
DetroitDetroit to work in agricultural,
automotive, and steel jobs. During the
Mexican RepatriationMexican Repatriation of the
1930s many Mexicans in
DetroitDetroit were willingly repatriated or forced to
repatriate. By the 1940s the Mexican community began to settle what is
now Mexicantown. The population significantly increased in the 1990s
due to immigration from Jalisco. In 2010
DetroitDetroit had 48,679 Hispanics,
including 36,452 Mexicans. The number of Hispanics was a 70% increase
from the number in 1990.[144]
After World War II, many people from
AppalachiaAppalachia settled in Detroit.
Appalachians formed communities and their children acquired southern
accents.[145] Many Lithuanians settled in
DetroitDetroit during the World War
II era, especially on the city's Southwest side in the West Vernor
area,[146] where the renovated Lithuanian Hall reopened in
2006.[147][148]
In 2001, 103,000 Jews, or about 1.9% of the population, were living in
the
DetroitDetroit area, in both
DetroitDetroit and Ann Arbor.[149]
Asians and Asian Americans[edit]
As of 2002, of all of the municipalities in the Wayne County-Oakland
County-Macomb County area,
DetroitDetroit had the second largest Asian
population. As of that year Detroit's percentage of Asians was 1%, far
lower than the 13.3% of Troy.[150] By 2000 Troy had the largest Asian
American population in the tricounty area, surpassing Detroit.[151]
As of 2002 there are four areas in
DetroitDetroit with significant Asian and
Asian AmericanAsian American populations. Northeast
DetroitDetroit has population of Hmong
with a smaller group of Lao people. A portion of
DetroitDetroit next to
eastern
HamtramckHamtramck includes Bangladeshi Americans, Indian Americans,
and Pakistani Americans; nearly all of the Bangladeshi population in
DetroitDetroit lives in that area. Many of those residents own small
businesses or work in blue collar jobs, and the population in that
area is mostly Muslim. The area north of Downtown Detroit; including
the region around the
Henry FordHenry Ford Hospital, the
DetroitDetroit Medical Center,
and Wayne State University; has transient Asian national origin
residents who are university students or hospital workers. Few of them
have permanent residency after schooling ends. They are mostly Chinese
and Indian but the population also includes Filipinos, Koreans, and
Pakistanis. In
Southwest Detroit and western
DetroitDetroit there are
smaller, scattered Asian communities including an area in the westside
adjacent to Dearborn and
Redford TownshipRedford Township that has a mostly Indian
Asian population, and a community of Vietnamese and Laotians in
Southwest Detroit.[150]
As of 2006[update] the city has one of the U.S.'s largest
concentrations of Hmong Americans.[152] In 2006, the city had about
4,000 Hmong and other Asian immigrant families. Most Hmong live east
of
Coleman YoungColeman Young Airport near Osborn High School. Hmong immigrant
families generally have lower incomes than those of suburban Asian
families.[153]
Economy[edit]
See also:
Economy of metropolitan DetroitEconomy of metropolitan Detroit and Planning and development
in Detroit

Labor force distribution in
DetroitDetroit by category:
Construction
Manufacturing
Trade, transportation, utilities
Information
Finance
Professional and business services
Education and health services
Leisure and hospitality
Other services
Government

Several major corporations are based in the city, including three
Fortune 500 companies. The most heavily represented sectors are
manufacturing (particularly automotive), finance, technology, and
health care. The most significant companies based in
DetroitDetroit include:
General Motors, Quicken Loans, Ally Financial, Compuware, Shinola,
American Axle, Little Caesars, DTE Energy, Lowe Campbell Ewald, Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and Rossetti Architects.
About 80,500 people work in downtown Detroit, comprising one-fifth of
the city's employment base.[155][156] Aside from the numerous
Detroit-based companies listed above, downtown contains large offices
for Comerica, Chrysler, HP Enterprise, Deloitte,
PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, and Ernst & Young. Ford Motor
Company is located in the adjacent city of Dearborn.

Thousands more employees work in Midtown, north of the central
business district. Midtown's anchors are the city's largest single
employer
DetroitDetroit Medical Center, Wayne State University, and the Henry
Ford Health System in New Center. Midtown is also home to watchmaker
ShinolaShinola and an array of small and startup companies.
New CenterNew Center bases
TechTown, a research and business incubator hub that is part of the
WSU system.[157] Like downtown and Corktown, Midtown also has a
fast-growing retailing and restaurant scene.
A number of the city's downtown employers are relatively new, as there
has been a marked trend of companies moving from satellite suburbs
around Metropolitan
DetroitDetroit into the downtown core.[158] Compuware
completed its world headquarters in downtown in 2003. OnStar, Blue
Cross Blue Shield, and
HP Enterprise ServicesHP Enterprise Services are located at the
Renaissance Center.
PricewaterhouseCoopersPricewaterhouseCoopers Plaza offices are adjacent
to Ford Field, and Ernst & Young completed its office building at
One Kennedy SquareOne Kennedy Square in 2006. Perhaps most prominently, in 2010, Quicken
Loans, one of the largest mortgage lenders, relocated its world
headquarters and 4,000 employees to downtown Detroit, consolidating
its suburban offices.[159] In July 2012, the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office opened its Elijah J. McCoy
SatelliteSatellite Office in the
Rivertown/Warehouse District as its first location outside Washington,
D.C.'s metropolitan area.[160]
In April 2014, the Department of Labor reported the city's
unemployment rate at 14.5%.[161]
The city of
DetroitDetroit and other private-public partnerships have
attempted to catalyze the region's growth by facilitating the building
and historical rehabilitation of residential high-rises in the
downtown, creating a zone that offers many business tax incentives,
creating recreational spaces such as the
DetroitDetroit RiverWalk, Campus
Martius Park,
Dequindre CutDequindre Cut Greenway, and Green Alleys in Midtown. The
city itself has cleared sections of land while retaining a number of
historically significant vacant buildings in order to spur
redevelopment;[162] though it has struggled with finances, the city
issued bonds in 2008 to provide funding for ongoing work to demolish
blighted properties.[110] Two years earlier, downtown reported
$1.3 billion in restorations and new developments which increased
the number of construction jobs in the city.[45] In the decade prior
to 2006, downtown gained more than $15 billion in new investment
from private and public sectors.[163]

Despite the city's recent financial issues, many developers remain
unfazed by Detroit's problems.[164] Midtown is one of the most
successful areas within
DetroitDetroit to have a residential occupancy rate
of 96%.[165] Numerous developments have been recently completely or
are in various stages of construction. These include the $82 million
reconstruction of downtown's
David Whitney BuildingDavid Whitney Building (now an Aloft
Hotel and luxury residences), the Woodward Garden Block Development in
Midtown, the residential conversion of the
David Broderick TowerDavid Broderick Tower in
downtown, the rehabilitation of the
Book Cadillac HotelBook Cadillac Hotel (now a Westin
and luxury condos) and
Fort Shelby HotelFort Shelby Hotel (now Doubletree) also in
downtown, and various smaller projects.[166]
Downtown's population of young professionals is growing and retail is
expanding.[167][168][169] A study in 2007 found out that Downtown's
new residents are predominantly young professionals (57% are ages 25
to 34, 45% have bachelor's degrees, and 34% have a master's or
professional degree),[155][167][170] a trend which has hastened over
the last decade.
John VarvatosJohn Varvatos is set to open a downtown store in
2015, and
Restoration HardwareRestoration Hardware is rumored to be opening a store
nearby.[171]
On July 25, 2013, Meijer, a midwestern retail chain, opened its first
supercenter store in Detroit,;[172] this was a 20 million dollar,
190,000-square-foot store in the northern portion of the city and it
also is the centerpiece of a new 72 million dollar shopping center
named Gateway Marketplace.[173] On June 11, 2015,
MeijerMeijer opened its
second supercenter store in the city.[174]
On May 21, 2014,
JPMorgan ChaseJPMorgan Chase announced that it was injecting $100
million over five years into Detroit's economy, providing development
funding for a variety of projects that would increase employment. It
is the largest commitment made to any one city by the nation's biggest
bank.[175] Of the $100 million, $50 million will go toward development
projects, $25 million will go toward city blight removal, $12.5
million will go for job training, $7 million will go for small
businesses in the city, and $5.5 million will go toward the M-1 light
rail project (Qline).[176] On May 19, 2015,
JPMorgan ChaseJPMorgan Chase announced
that it has invested $32 million for two redevelopment projects in the
city's Capitol Park district, the Capitol Park Lofts (the former
Capitol Park Building) and the
DetroitDetroit Savings Bank building at 1212
Griswold. Those investments are separate from Chase's five-year,
$100-million commitment.[177] On May 10, 2017, J.P. Morgan Chase &
Co. announced a $50 million increase in the $100 million investment
the firm committed to economic development and neighborhood
stabilization in
DetroitDetroit by 2019. Half of the $150 million will be
grants and the other half is going to toward a variety of loan funds
for small business growth, mixed-use real estate development and
residential housing projects. [178]
Culture and contemporary life[edit]
Main article: Culture of Detroit

Detroit's Broadway Area, a cultural link in Downtown

In the central portions of Detroit, the population of young
professionals, artists, and other transplants is growing and retail is
expanding.[167][168] This dynamic is luring additional new residents,
and former residents returning from other cities, to the city's
Downtown along with the revitalized Midtown and New Center
areas.[155][167][168][170]
A desire to be closer to the urban scene has also attracted some young
professionals to reside in inner ring suburbs such as Ferndale and
Royal Oak, Michigan.[179] Detroit's proximity to Windsor, Ontario,
provides for views and nightlife, along with Ontario's minimum
drinking age of 19.[180] A 2011 study by
Walk ScoreWalk Score recognized Detroit
for its above average walkability among large U.S. cities.[181] About
two-thirds of suburban residents occasionally dine and attend cultural
events or take in professional games in the city of Detroit.[182]
Nicknames[edit]
Known as the world's automotive center,[183] "Detroit" is a metonym
for that industry.[184] Detroit's auto industry, some of which was
converted to wartime defense production, was an important element of
the American "Arsenal of Democracy" supporting the Allied powers
during World War II.[185] It is an important source of popular music
legacies celebrated by the city's two familiar nicknames, the Motor
CityCity and Motown.[186] Other nicknames arose in the 20th century,
including
CityCity of Champions, beginning in the 1930s for its successes
in individual and team sport;[187] The D;
Hockeytown (a trademark
owned by the city's NHL club, the Red Wings); Rock
CityCity (after the
Kiss song "
DetroitDetroit Rock City"); and The 313 (its telephone area
code).[188][189]
Music[edit]
Main article: Music of Detroit
Live music has been a prominent feature of Detroit's nightlife since
the late 1940s, bringing the city recognition under the nickname
'Motown'.[190] The metropolitan area has many nationally prominent
live music venues. Concerts hosted by
Live NationLive Nation perform throughout
the
DetroitDetroit area. Large concerts are held at
DTE EnergyDTE Energy Music Theatre
and The Palace of Auburn Hills. The city's theatre venue circuit is
the United States' second largest and hosts Broadway
performances.[191][192]

The city of
DetroitDetroit has a rich musical heritage and has contributed to
a number of different genres over the decades leading into the new
millennium.[189] Important music events in the city include: the
DetroitDetroit International
JazzJazz Festival, the
DetroitDetroit Electronic Music
Festival, the Motor
CityCity Music Conference (MC2), the Urban Organic
Music Conference, the Concert of Colors, and the hip-hop Summer Jamz
festival.[189]
In the 1940s,
Detroit bluesDetroit blues artist
John Lee HookerJohn Lee Hooker became a long-term
resident in the city's southwest Delray neighborhood. Hooker, among
other important blues musicians migrated from his home in Mississippi
bringing the
Delta bluesDelta blues to northern cities like Detroit. Hooker
recorded for Fortune Records, the biggest pre-
MotownMotown blues/soul label.
During the 1950s, the city became a center for jazz, with stars
performing in the Black Bottom neighborhood.[14] Prominent emerging
JazzJazz musicians of the 1960s included: trumpet player
Donald ByrdDonald Byrd who
attended Cass Tech and performed with Art Blakey and the Jazz
Messengers early in his career and Saxophonist
Pepper AdamsPepper Adams who
enjoyed a solo career and accompanied Byrd on several albums. The
Graystone International
JazzJazz Museum documents jazz in Detroit.[193]
Other, prominent Motor
CityCity R&B stars in the 1950s and early 1960s
was Nolan Strong,
Andre WilliamsAndre Williams and
Nathaniel Mayer – who all
scored local and national hits on the
Fortune RecordsFortune Records label. According
to Smokey Robinson, Strong was a primary influence on his voice as a
teenager. The Fortune label was a family-operated label located on
Third Avenue in Detroit, and was owned by the husband and wife team of
Jack Brown and Devora Brown. Fortune, which also released country,
gospel and rockabilly LPs and 45s, laid the groundwork for Motown,
which became Detroit's most legendary record label.[194]

The MGM Grand Detroit, one of Detroit's three casino resorts and the
16th largest employer in the city

Berry Gordy, Jr.Berry Gordy, Jr. founded
MotownMotown Records which rose to prominence
during the 1960s and early 1970s with acts such as Stevie Wonder, The
Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Diana
Ross & The Supremes, the Jackson 5, Martha and the Vandellas, The
Spinners, Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Marvelettes, The Elgins,
The Monitors,
The VelvelettesThe Velvelettes and Marvin Gaye. Artists were backed by
in-house vocalists[195]
The Andantes and The Funk Brothers, the Motown
house band that was featured in Paul Justman's 2002 documentary film
Standing in the Shadows of Motown, based on Allan Slutsky's book of
the same name.
The
MotownMotown Sound played an important role in the crossover appeal with
popular music, since it was the first
African AmericanAfrican American owned record
label to primarily feature African-American artists. Gordy moved
MotownMotown to Los Angeles in 1972 to pursue film production, but the
company has since returned to Detroit. Aretha Franklin, another
DetroitDetroit R&B star, carried the
MotownMotown Sound; however, she did not
record with Berry's
MotownMotown Label.[189]
Local artists and bands rose to prominence in the 1960s and 70s
including: the MC5, The Stooges, Bob Seger,
Amboy Dukes featuring Ted
Nugent,
Mitch RyderMitch Ryder and The
DetroitDetroit Wheels, Rare Earth, Alice Cooper,
and Suzi Quatro. The group Kiss emphasized the city's connection with
rock in the song
Detroit Rock CityDetroit Rock City and the movie produced in 1999. In
the 1980s,
DetroitDetroit was an important center of the hardcore punk rock
underground with many nationally known bands coming out of the city
and its suburbs, such as The Romantics, The Necros, The Meatmen, and
Negative Approach.[194]
In the 1990s and the new millennium, the city has produced a number of
influential hip hop artists, including Eminem, the hip-hop artist with
the highest cumulative sales, hip-hop producer J Dilla, rapper and
producer
Esham and hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse. The city is also
home to rappers
Big SeanBig Sean and Danny Brown. The band Sponge toured and
produced music, with artists such as
Kid RockKid Rock and Uncle
Kracker.[189][194] The city also has an active garage rock genre that
has generated national attention with acts such as: The White Stripes,
The Von Bondies, The
DetroitDetroit Cobras, The Dirtbombs, Electric Six, and
The Hard Lessons.[189]
DetroitDetroit is cited as the birthplace of techno music in the early
1980s.[196] The city also lends its name to an early and pioneering
genre of electronic dance music, "
DetroitDetroit techno". Featuring science
fiction imagery and robotic themes, its futuristic style was greatly
influenced by the geography of Detroit's urban decline and its
industrial past.[14] Prominent
Detroit technoDetroit techno artists include Juan
Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, and Jeff Mills. The Detroit
Electronic Music Festival, now known as "Movement", occurs annually in
late May on Memorial Day Weekend, and takes place in Hart Plaza. In
the early years (2000–2002), this was a landmark event, boasting
over a million estimated attendees annually, coming from all over the
world to celebrate
Techno musicTechno music in the city of its birth.
Entertainment and performing arts[edit]

The city's Greektown and three downtown casino resort hotels serve as
part of an entertainment hub. The Eastern Market farmer's distribution
center is the largest open-air flowerbed market in the United States
and has more than 150 foods and specialty businesses.[201] On
Saturdays, about 45,000 people shop the city's historic Eastern
Market.[202] The Midtown and the
New CenterNew Center area are centered on Wayne
State University and
Henry FordHenry Ford Hospital. Midtown has about 50,000
residents and attracts millions of visitors each year to its museums
and cultural centers;[203] for example, the
DetroitDetroit Festival of the
Arts in Midtown draws about 350,000 people.[203]
Annual summer events include the Electronic Music Festival,
International
JazzJazz Festival, the Woodward Dream Cruise, the African
World Festival, the country music Hoedown, Noel Night, and Dally in
the Alley. Within downtown,
Campus Martius ParkCampus Martius Park hosts large events,
including the annual
MotownMotown Winter Blast. As the world's traditional
automotive center, the city hosts the North American International
Auto Show. Held since 1924, America's Thanksgiving Parade is one of
the nation's largest.[204] River Days, a five-day summer festival on
the International Riverfront lead up to the Windsor–Detroit
International Freedom Festival fireworks, which draw super
sized-crowds ranging from hundreds of thousands to over three million
people.[182][189][205]
An important civic sculpture in
DetroitDetroit is
The Spirit of DetroitThe Spirit of Detroit by
Marshall FredericksMarshall Fredericks at the
Coleman YoungColeman Young Municipal Center. The image
is often used as a symbol of
DetroitDetroit and the statue itself is
occasionally dressed in sports jerseys to celebrate when a Detroit
team is doing well.[206] A memorial to
Joe LouisJoe Louis at the intersection
of Jefferson and Woodward Avenues was dedicated on October 16, 1986.
The sculpture, commissioned by
Sports IllustratedSports Illustrated and executed by
Robert Graham, is a 24-foot (7.3 m) long arm with a fisted hand
suspended by a pyramidal framework.[207]
Artist Tyree Guyton created the controversial street art exhibit known
as the
Heidelberg ProjectHeidelberg Project in 1986, using found objects including cars,
clothing and shoes found in the neighborhood near and on Heidelberg
Street on the near East Side of Detroit.[189] Guyton continues to work
with neighborhood residents and tourists in constantly evolving the
neighborhood-wide art installation.
Sports[edit]

The city is governed pursuant to the Home Rule Charter of the
CityCity of
Detroit. The city government is run by a mayor and a nine-member city
council and clerk. Seven city council members are elected via district
while two are elected at large. The mayor and clerk are elected in an
at large election as well. Since voters approved the city's charter in
1974,
DetroitDetroit has had a "strong mayoral" system, with the mayor
approving departmental appointments. The council approves budgets but
the mayor is not obligated to adhere to any earmarking. City
ordinances and substantially large contracts must be approved by the
council.[212] The
DetroitDetroitCityCity Code is the codification of Detroit's
local ordinances.
The city clerk supervises elections and is formally charged with the
maintenance of municipal records. Municipal elections for mayor, city
council and city clerk are held at four-year intervals, in the year
after presidential elections.[212] Following a November 2009
referendum, seven council members will be elected from districts
beginning in 2013 while two will continue to be elected at-large.[213]
Detroit's courts are state-administered and elections are nonpartisan.
The Probate Court for Wayne County is located in the Coleman A. Young
Municipal Center in downtown Detroit. The Circuit Court is located
across Gratiot Avenue in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, in downtown
Detroit. The city is home to the Thirty-Sixth District Court, as well
as the First District of the
MichiganMichigan Court of Appeals and the United
States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The city
provides law enforcement through the
Detroit Police DepartmentDetroit Police Department and
emergency services through the
DetroitDetroit Fire Department.
Crime[edit]
Further information:
Crime in DetroitCrime in Detroit and
DetroitDetroit Police Department

DetroitDetroit has struggled with high crime for decades.
DetroitDetroit held the
title of murder capital between 1985–1987 with a murder rate around
58 per 100,000.[214] Crime has since decreased and, in 2014, the
murder rate was 43.4 per 100,000, lower than in St. Louis,
Missouri.[215]
About half of all murders in
MichiganMichigan in 2015 occurred in
Detroit.[216][217] Although the rate of violent crime dropped 11% in
2008,[218] violent crime in
DetroitDetroit has not declined as much as the
national average from 2007 to 2011.[219] The violent crime rate is one
of the highest in the United States. Neighborhoodscout.com reported a
crime rate of 62.18 per 1,000 residents for property crimes, and 16.73
per 1,000 for violent crimes (compared to national figures of 32 per
1,000 for property crimes and 5 per 1,000 for violent crime in
2008).[220] Annual statistics released by the
DetroitDetroit Police
Department for 2016 indicate that while the city's overall crime rate
declined that year, the murder rate rose from 2015.[221] In 2016 there
were 302 homicides in Detroit, a 2.37% increase in the number of
murder victims from the preceding year.[221]
The city's downtown typically has lower crime than national and state
averages.[222] According to a 2007 analysis,
DetroitDetroit officials note
that about 65 to 70 percent of homicides in the city were drug
related,[223] with the rate of unsolved murders roughly 70%.[119]
Areas of the city closer to the
Detroit RiverDetroit River are also patrolled by
the
United StatesUnited States Border Patrol.
In 2012, crime in the city was among the reasons for more expensive
car insurance.[224]
Politics[edit]

Beginning with its incorporation in 1802,
DetroitDetroit has had a total of
74 mayors. Detroit's last mayor from the Republican Party was Louis
Miriani, who served from 1957 to 1962. In 1973, the city elected its
first black mayor, Coleman Young. Despite development efforts, his
combative style during his five terms in office was not well received
by many suburban residents.[226] Mayor Dennis Archer, a former
MichiganMichigan Supreme Court Justice, refocused the city's attention on
redevelopment with a plan to permit three casinos downtown. By 2008,
three major casino resort hotels established operations in the city.
In 2000, the city requested an investigation by the United States
Justice Department into the
Detroit Police DepartmentDetroit Police Department which was
concluded in 2003 over allegations regarding its use of force and
civil rights violations. The city proceeded with a major
reorganization of the
DetroitDetroit Police Department.[227]
Public finances[edit]
In March 2013, Governor
Rick SnyderRick Snyder declared a financial emergency in
the city, stating that the city has a $327 million budget deficit and
faces more than $14 billion in long-term debt. It has been making ends
meet on a month-to-month basis with the help of bond money held in a
state escrow account and has instituted mandatory unpaid days off for
many city workers. Those troubles, along with underfunded city
services, such as police and fire departments, and ineffective
turnaround plans from Bing and the
CityCity Council[228] led the state of
MichiganMichigan to appoint an emergency manager for
DetroitDetroit on March 14,
2013. On June 14, 2013
DetroitDetroit defaulted on $2.5 billion of debt by
withholding $39.7 million in interest payments, while Emergency
Manager
Kevyn Orr met with bondholders and other creditors in an
attempt to restructure the city's $18.5 billion debt and avoid
bankruptcy.[229] On July 18, 2013, the
CityCity of
DetroitDetroit filed for
Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.[230][231] It was declared bankrupt by
U.S. judge Stephen Rhodes on December 3, with its $18.5 billion debt
he said in accepting the city's contention that it is broke and that
negotiations with its thousands of creditors were infeasible.[75] The
city levies an income tax of 2.4 percent on residents and 1.2 percent
on nonresidents.[232]
Education[edit]
Colleges and universities[edit]
See also: Colleges and universities in Metro Detroit

Old Main, a historic building at Wayne State University, originally
built as
DetroitDetroit Central High School.

DetroitDetroit is home to several institutions of higher learning including
Wayne State University, a national research university with medical
and law schools in the Midtown area offering hundreds of academic
degrees and programs. The University of
DetroitDetroit Mercy, located in
Northwest
DetroitDetroit in the University District, is a prominent Roman
Catholic co-educational university affiliated with the Society of
Jesus (the Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The University of
DetroitDetroit Mercy offers more than a hundred academic degrees and programs
of study including business, dentistry, law, engineering,
architecture, nursing and allied health professions. The University of
DetroitDetroit Mercy School of Law is located Downtown across from the
Renaissance Center.
Sacred Heart Major Seminary, founded in 1919, is affiliated with
Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome and
offers pontifical degrees as well as civil undergraduate and graduate
degrees.
Sacred Heart Major SeminarySacred Heart Major Seminary offers a variety of academic
programs for both clerical and lay students. Other institutions in the
city include the College for Creative Studies, Lewis College of
Business,
Marygrove CollegeMarygrove College and Wayne County Community College. In
June 2009, the
MichiganMichigan State University College of Osteopathic
Medicine which is based in East Lansing opened a satellite campus
located at the
DetroitDetroit Medical Center. The University of
MichiganMichigan was
established in 1817 in
DetroitDetroit and later moved to Ann Arbor in 1837.
In 1959,
University of Michigan–DearbornUniversity of Michigan–Dearborn was established in
neighboring Dearborn.
Primary and secondary schools[edit]
Public schools and charter schools[edit]
With about 66,000 public school students (2011–12), the Detroit
Public Schools (DPS) district is the largest school district in
Michigan.
DetroitDetroit has an additional 56,000 charter school students for
a combined enrollment of about 122,000 students.[233][234] As of
2009[update] there are about as many students in charter schools as
there are in district schools.[235]
In 1999, the
MichiganMichigan Legislature removed the locally elected board of
education amid allegations of mismanagement and replaced it with a
reform board appointed by the mayor and governor. The elected board of
education was re-established following a city referendum in 2005. The
first election of the new 11-member board of education occurred on
November 8, 2005.[236]
Due to growing
DetroitDetroit charter schools enrollment as well as a
continued exodus of population, the city planned to close many public
schools.[233] State officials report a 68% graduation rate for
Detroit's public schools adjusted for those who change
schools.[237][238]
Public and charter school students in the city have performed poorly
on standardized tests. While
DetroitDetroit public schools scored a record
low on national tests, the publicly funded charter schools did even
worse than the public schools.[239][240]
DetroitDetroit public schools students scored the lowest on tests of reading
and writing of all major cities in the
United StatesUnited States in 2015. Among
eighth-graders, only 27% showed basic proficiency in math and 44% in
reading.[241] Nearly half of Detroit's adults are functionally
illiterate.[242]
Private schools[edit]
DetroitDetroit is served by various private schools, as well as parochial
Roman CatholicRoman Catholic schools operated by the Archdiocese of Detroit. As of
2013[update] there are four Catholic grade schools and three Catholic
high schools in the
CityCity of Detroit, with all of them in the city's
west side.[243] The Archdiocese of
DetroitDetroit lists a number of primary
and secondary schools in the metro area as Catholic education has
emigrated to the suburbs.[244][245] Of the three Catholic high schools
in the city, two are operated by the
Society of JesusSociety of Jesus and the third is
co-sponsored by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
and the Congregation of St. Basil.[246][247]
In the 1964–1965 school year there were about 110 Catholic grade
schools in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park and 55 Catholic high
schools in those three cities. The Catholic school population in
DetroitDetroit has decreased due to the increase of charter schools,
increasing tuition at Catholic schools, the small number of
African-American Catholics, White Catholics moving to suburbs, and the
decreased number of teaching nuns.[243]
Media[edit]
Main article: Media in Detroit

The
Detroit Free PressDetroit Free Press and
The Detroit NewsThe Detroit News are the major daily
newspapers, both broadsheet publications published together under a
joint operating agreement called the
DetroitDetroit Newspaper Partnership.
Media philanthropy includes the
Detroit Free PressDetroit Free Press high school
journalism program and the Old Newsboys' Goodfellow Fund of
Detroit.[248] In March 2009, the two newspapers reduced home delivery
to three days a week, print reduced newsstand issues of the papers on
non-delivery days and focus resources on Internet-based news
delivery.[249] The Metro Times, founded in 1980, is a weekly
publication, covering news, arts & entertainment.[250]
Also founded in 1935 and based in
DetroitDetroit the
MichiganMichigan Chronicle is
one of the oldest and most respected African-American weekly
newspapers in America. Covering politics, entertainment, sports and
community events.[251] The
DetroitDetroit television market is the 11th
largest in the United States;[252] according to estimates that do not
include audiences located in large areas of Ontario, Canada (Windsor
and its surrounding area on broadcast and cable TV, as well as several
other cable markets in Ontario, such as the city of Ottawa) which
receive and watch
DetroitDetroit television stations.[252]
DetroitDetroit has the 11th largest radio market in the United States,[253]
though this ranking does not take into account Canadian
audiences.[253] Nearby Canadian stations such as Windsor's
CKLWCKLW (whose
jingles formerly proclaimed "CKLW-the Motor City") are popular in
Detroit.
Hardcore Pawn, a U.S. documentary reality television series produced
for truTV, features the day-to-day operations of American Jewelry and
Loan, a family-owned pawn shop on Greenfield Road.
Infrastructure[edit]
Health systems[edit]
Within the city of Detroit, there are over a dozen major hospitals
which include the
Detroit Medical CenterDetroit Medical Center (DMC),
Henry FordHenry Ford Health
System,
St. John HealthSt. John Health System, and the John D. Dingell VA Medical
Center. The DMC, a regional Level I trauma center, consists of Detroit
Receiving Hospital and University Health Center, Children's Hospital
of Michigan, Harper University Hospital, Hutzel Women's Hospital,
Kresge Eye Institute, Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan,
Sinai-Grace Hospital, and the Karmanos Cancer Institute. The DMC has
more than 2,000 licensed beds and 3,000 affiliated physicians. It is
the largest private employer in the
CityCity of Detroit.[254] The center
is staffed by physicians from the
Wayne State UniversityWayne State University School of
Medicine, the largest single-campus medical school in the United
States, and the United States' fourth largest medical school
overall.[254]
Detroit Medical CenterDetroit Medical Center formally became a part of Vanguard Health
Systems on December 30, 2010, as a for profit corporation. Vanguard
has agreed to invest nearly $1.5 B in the
DetroitDetroit Medical Center
complex which will include $417 M to retire debts, at least $350 M in
capital expenditures and an additional $500 M for new capital
investment.[255][256] Vanguard has agreed to assume all debts and
pension obligations.[255] The metro area has many other hospitals
including William Beaumont Hospital, St. Joseph's, and University of
MichiganMichigan Medical Center.
In 2011,
Detroit Medical CenterDetroit Medical Center and
Henry FordHenry Ford Health System
substantially increased investments in medical research facilities and
hospitals in the city's Midtown and New Center.[255][257]
In 2012, two major construction projects were begun in New Center, the
Henry FordHenry Ford Health System started the first phase of a $500 million,
300-acre revitalization project, with the construction of a new $30
million, 275,000-square-foot, Medical Distribution Center for Cardinal
Health, Inc.[258][259] and
Wayne State UniversityWayne State University started construction
on a new $93 million, 207,000-square-foot, Integrative Biosciences
Center (IBio).[260][261] As many as 500 researchers, and staff will
work out of the IBio Center. [262]
Transportation[edit]
Main article: Transportation in metropolitan Detroit

With its proximity to Canada and its facilities, ports, major
highways, rail connections and international airports,
DetroitDetroit is an
important transportation hub. The city has three international border
crossings, the Ambassador Bridge,
Detroit–Windsor TunnelDetroit–Windsor Tunnel and
MichiganMichigan Central Railway Tunnel, linking
DetroitDetroit to Windsor, Ontario.
The
Ambassador BridgeAmbassador Bridge is the single busiest border crossing in North
America, carrying 27% of the total trade between the U.S. and
Canada.[263]
On February 18, 2015, Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced
that Canada has agreed to pay the entire cost to build a $250 million
U.S. Customs plaza adjacent to the planned new Detroit–Windsor
bridge, now the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Canada had already
planned to pay for 95% of the bridge, which will cost $2.1 billion,
and is expected to open in 2020. "This allows Canada and
MichiganMichigan to
move the project forward immediately to its next steps which include
further design work and property acquisition on the U.S. side of the
border," Raitt said in a statement issued after she spoke in the House
of Commons. [264]
Transit systems[edit]

Mass transitMass transit in the region is provided by bus services. The Detroit
Department of Transportation (DDOT) provides service to the outer
edges of the city. From there, the Suburban Mobility Authority for
Regional Transportation (SMART) provides service to the suburbs and
the city with SMART's FAST service. FAST is a new service powered by
SMART, which offers limited stops and connects the suburbs to downtown
quickly and easily. The new high-frequency service travels along three
of Detroit’s busiest corridors, Gratiot, Woodward, and Michigan, and
only stops at designated FAST stops. Cross border service between the
downtown areas of Windsor and
DetroitDetroit is provided by Transit Windsor
via the Tunnel Bus.[265]
An elevated rail system known as the People Mover, completed in 1987,
provides daily service around a 2.94 miles (4.73 km) loop
downtown. The
QLINEQLINE serves as a link between the
DetroitDetroit People Mover
and
DetroitDetroitAmtrakAmtrak station via Woodward Avenue.[266] The SEMCOG
Commuter Rail line will extend from Detroit's New Center, connecting
to Ann Arbor via Dearborn, Wayne, and Ypsilanti when it is
opened.[267]
The Regional Transit Authority (RTA) was established by an act of the
MichiganMichigan legislature in December 2012 to oversee and coordinate all
existing regional mass transit operations, and to develop new transit
services in the region. The RTA's first project was the introduction
of RelfeX, a limited-stop, cross-county bus service connecting
downtown and midtown
DetroitDetroit with Oakland county via Woodward
avenue.[268]
AmtrakAmtrak provides service to Detroit, operating its Wolverine service
between
ChicagoChicago and Pontiac. The
AmtrakAmtrak station is located in New
Center north of downtown. The J. W. Westcott II, which delivers mail
to lake freighters on the
DetroitDetroit River, is the world's only floating
post office.[269]
Airports[edit]

Aerial of
DetroitDetroit Metro Airport, one of the largest air traffic hubs
in the US

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County AirportDetroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), the principal airport
serving Detroit, is located in nearby Romulus.
DTWDTW is a primary hub
for
Delta Air LinesDelta Air Lines (following its acquisition of Northwest Airlines),
and a secondary hub for Spirit Airlines.
Coleman A. Young International AirportColeman A. Young International Airport (DET), previously called
DetroitDetroitCityCity Airport, is on Detroit's northeast side; the airport now
maintains only charter service and general aviation.[270] Willow Run
Airport, in far-western Wayne County near Ypsilanti, is a general
aviation and cargo airport.
Freeways[edit]
Main article: Roads and freeways in metropolitan Detroit
Metro DetroitMetro Detroit has an extensive toll-free network of freeways
administered by the
MichiganMichigan Department of Transportation. Four major
Interstate Highways surround the city.
DetroitDetroit is connected via
Interstate 75 (I-75) and I-96 to Kings Highway 401 and to major
Southern
OntarioOntario cities such as London,
OntarioOntario and the Greater
Toronto Area. I-75 (
ChryslerChrysler and Fisher freeways) is the region's main
north–south route, serving Flint, Pontiac, Troy, and Detroit, before
continuing south (as the Detroit–Toledo and Seaway Freeways) to
serve many of the communities along the shore of Lake Erie.[271]
I-94 (Edsel Ford Freeway) runs east–west through
DetroitDetroit and serves
Ann Arbor to the west (where it continues to Chicago) and Port Huron
to the northeast. The stretch of the current I-94 freeway from
Ypsilanti to
DetroitDetroit was one of America's earlier limited-access
highways.
Henry FordHenry Ford built it to link the factories at Willow Run and
Dearborn during World War II. A portion was known as the Willow Run
Expressway. The I-96 freeway runs northwest–southeast through
Livingston, Oakland and Wayne counties and (as the Jeffries Freeway
through Wayne County) has its eastern terminus in downtown
Detroit.[271]
I-275 runs north–south from I-75 in the south to the junction of
I-96 and I-696 in the north, providing a bypass through the western
suburbs of Detroit. I-375 is a short spur route in downtown Detroit,
an extension of the
ChryslerChrysler Freeway. I-696 (Reuther Freeway) runs
east–west from the junction of I-96 and I-275, providing a route
through the northern suburbs of Detroit. Taken together, I-275 and
I-696 form a semicircle around Detroit.
MichiganMichigan state highways
designated with the letter M serve to connect major freeways.[271]
Floating Post Office[edit]
DetroitDetroit is home to the only floating post office in the United States.
In 1948, The J.W. Westscot II became a floating post office servicing
the Port of Detroit. Its zip code is 48222. Originally established in
1874 as a maritime reporting agency to inform other vessels about port
conditions, the J.W. Westscott II is still in operation today.
Notable people[edit]
Main article: List of people from Detroit
Sister cities[edit]
DetroitDetroit has seven sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities
International: [272][273]

^ Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the highest and lowest
temperature readings during an entire month or year) calculated based
on data at said location from 1981 to 2010.
^ Official records for
DetroitDetroit were kept at downtown from January 1874
to December 1933,
Detroit City AirportDetroit City Airport from February 1934 to March
1966, and at
DTWDTW since April 1966. For more information, see ThreadEx.

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